Cases against Mithu, Mann, Khaira false: Panel

The Justice (retd) Mehtab Gill Commission has found the cases registered during the SAD-BJP regime against AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, SAD (A) leader Simranjit Singh Mann and Jagraon resident Sukhwinder Mithu to be false.

In the sixth interim report, submitted to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today, the panel has recommended cancellation of FIRs as relevant and action against officials responsible for registering them.

According to an official spokesperson, in the report, action has been recommended in 47 of the 240 cases that were decided, with the remaining 193 dismissed for various reasons.

The panel was set up to look into "false cases" registered during the decade-long SAD-BJP rule in Punjab.

"The report said false cases were registered on political considerations against Sukhwinder Singh Mithu, Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Simranjit Singh Mann," the spokesperson said.

Besides recommending action against the guilty police officials, the panel has recommended cancellation of a sedition case against Mann, as well as cancellation of the 17 FIRs against Khaira and his supporters.

Sukhwinder Mithu, a member Kaunke panchayat in Jagraon, was falsely implicated in eight cases after he complained against the relatives of his wife Jaswinder Kaur Jassi, a Canadian resident, who was killed in 2000.

While his wife's mother and maternal uncle, along with some police officials, were convicted in the murder case, Mithu was acquitted in all the eight cases against him, report stated.

The panel had found 182 police officers guilty of trying to frame Mithu in false cases to harass him into withdrawing the complaint against his wife's relatives.

In the case of Simranjit Singh Mann, the commission has found that he neither gave any speech nor did he utter a word at the 'Sarbat Khalsa' held to protest against the desecration of a holy book in Bargarhi village of Faridkot on November 10, 2015.

The sedition case was falsely slapped against Mann by the Akalis and Akali leader Bibi Jagir Kaur, the commission's report stated.

The panel has also endorsed the findings of police that all the 17 cases registered against Khaira and his supporters between 2007-2008 were false.

The Commission has so far decided 895 of the 4,349 complaints received by it.